Reduce one of waste disposal’s three R’s
IN THE CITY
Most of us are familiar with the 3 R’s at the top of the waste hierarchy. The best methods to handle solid waste in order of priority are Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. Much emphasis has been placed on recycling over the last couple of decades, but you don’t hear much about reuse and reduce, particularly reduce.
Reducing what you throw away is simply not creating the waste to begin with. As an example, duplex photocopying reduces the amount of paper needed in half by using both sides of the paper instead of just one side.
Reduce is a method that really needs to be applied to our food supply. Do you know that 31 percent of all available food in the United States is never eaten? That amounts to 133 billion pounds of food with a value of $161 billion that is discarded in America every year.
What is most troubling is that 14 percent of the homes in the United States are food insecure, which is defined as not having access at all times to enough food for an active and healthy lifestyle. Simply stated, sometimes people are hungry because they do not have enough to eat.
Perhaps saddest of all are the reasons that we are throwing away all of this edible food. First, we buy too much. Second, we don’t store perishables properly. Third, we don’t eat a sizeable portion of the food we prepare to eat.
What we are wasting goes beyond the food itself. We are wasting fuel to grow and transport the food. Ten percent of all of the fuel used in the U.S. goes for food production. We are wasting one-quarter of the 80 percent of the fresh water used in the United States to grow food. We are wasting landfill space. One study found that 21 percent of America’s waste stream is food waste.
Do you know what the major factor is that results in the most food waste? We don’t use the food in time and it spoils. For example, in this country 21 perfectly good tomatoes per person — worth over $2 billion — are thrown away every year. Interestingly, we all know what we should eat, so we buy lots of fruits and vegetables. Then we make sure we finish the last crumbs from the snack bag while the fruits and veggies slowly decompose to the point that we throw them away.
So how can we reduce the amount of food that we are throwing away? Only buy what you will really consume. Store what needs to be refrigerated in the proper section of the refrigerator. Do not overpack the refrigerator, which reduces the flow of cool air. Don’t cook or serve too much that will never get eaten.
You will do your wallet and the landfill a favor by applying these basic principles. Then with the money you have saved, perhaps you would consider helping those in your community that are less fortunate than you are.
Dana H. Fowler, P.E., is public services director for the city of Presque Isle. He can be reached at 760-2707 or via email at dfowler@presqueisleme.us.
